Phish make big splash back into huge pond February 27, 2003 - Advance Titan (UW-OshKosh) by Ryan Murphy We stood trapped outside the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill unaware of the fact that music inside had started without us. It was Feb. 20 and Phish was in the middle of a 12-show tour of their December release of "Round Room." The album is a stripped-down version of their other releases with fewer long jams. This did not stop them from performing a 22-minute version of "Seven Below" and a 17-minute "Pebbles and Marbles" that whipped the audience into a deafening frenzy. The band showed more energy than I had ever seen from them. During a piano interlude in "Punch You in the Eye," guitarist Trey Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon danced a little synchronized jig. Anastasio finished up the concert by showing off his 'Jedi' skills in "The Tweezer Reprise," swinging his guitar around his head harnessing distortion from the amplifiers and monitors. We arrived for the show in Cincinnati around 4 p.m. on Feb. 22. The parking structure looked like some sort of Middle East public market. Each ramp was lined on both sides with tables of products to buy: food, drink, hemp products and tobacco pipes. The crowd was more excitable at this show and threw glow sticks through the air. Without a doubt, their performance of "Bathtub Gin" the highlight of the night and of my weekend. They jammed on this song for 27 minutes. The last 10 were spent passing around the "Bathtub Gin" lines from instrument to instrument hidden just beneath the surface of the music. At one point Anastasio played the basic chords while keyboardist Page McConnell played the melody at half the speed. In the end, Phish fell right back into "Bathtub Gin" as if they had never left it. The band was much more experimental than previous shows. McConnell played around with some classical-style piano in "Walls of the Cave." This song also boasted an intense drum solo by Jon Fishman. The lights were dancing all around on stage, on a screen above and over the audience, perfectly synchronized with the music. Phish finished off the show with "Suzy Greenberg," which sent the crowd into a deafening roar. Both shows were very peaceful. The crowd was there to have fun, not cause trouble. Like Anastasio sang in "Bathtub Gin:" "We're all in this together!" The crowd responded, "and we'd love to take a bath!" Copyright © 2003 Advance Titan